History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 92

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802

USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 92

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Mr. Burrow was first married January 1, 1884, at Marble Hill, to Margaret Crites, Mr. Kittredge is not now and never has danghter of old residents of that locality. " been a politician, but he has proved himself She bore him three children; Ina is the only one living. Of the two sons, Homer, the eldest child, died at three and a half years of age, in 1855: and Harry, the youngest child, who died at nineteen years of age, in the fall of 1908. His second marriage was with Mrs. Anna Bowen, in Brownwood. The only child of this union is Arthur, born July 2, 1895, who is now living with his father. The wife and mother died. as also did his third wife, who formerly was Mrs. Rosa Taylor. In June, 1899, he married, at Zelma, Missouri, Miss Harriet James who is his present com- panion.

Mr. Burrow has always taken a somewhat active interest in political matters, affiliating with the Republican party, and fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Red Men and the Protective League.

HON. W. HERBERT KITTREDGE, representa- tive for Butler county in the Missouri State Legislature, dates his birth in Livingston county, this state, January 20, 1868, and is a son of D. C. and Sarah E. (Baldwin) Kit- tredge, natives of Michigan.

D. C. Kittredge came to Missouri before the Civil war, and his wife came in 1866. They made their home in Livingston and ad- joining counties until they moved to Butler county and settled on a farm adjoining the one on which the subject of this sketch now lives. This farm the father sold soon after- ward and moved to Poplar Bluff, where his death occurred in 1890, at the age of sixty-

one years. His widow resides with her son W. II.

W. H. Kittredge, being the second eldest son in the family and having to assist with the farm work, had little opportunity for obtaining an education, but he made the best of his opportunities, and in a measure may be said to be self-educated. When he married which he did in December, 1892, his belong- ings consisted of a team, some farm imple- ments, and an interest in a piece of bottom land, seventy-five acres, a portion of which had been cleared. And farming has been his occupation all these years. He has bought other land, which he has cleared and placed under cultivation, and he also operates eighty acres belonging to his mother, corn and hay being his principal crops. His land borders Black river on one side, the I. M. Railroad on the other.

the right man for representative of his county in the General Assembly. His selection for this honored position came as a surprise to him. In the middle of the campaign the nominee for representative resigned, and without Mr. Kittredge's knowledge he was named to fill the vacancy. His election fol- lowed, with a good majority of votes, and in due time he took his seat in the Forty-sixth General Assembly, where he was assigned to duty as a member of the committee on swamp lands and drainage; also on the redistricting committee. Through his efforts an appropri- ation of fifty thousand dollars was secured in the House to levee the east side of Black and St. Francois rivers. He was delegated by the Governor to attend the Mississippi River Im- provement Association, which met at Mem- phis in October, 1910. For years he has been an advocate of co-operative movements among the farmers, and he has helped to or- ganize several Farmers' Unions. Ile is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

Mrs. Kittredge, formerly Miss Belle Mar- tin. is a native of Scottsville, Illinois, where they were married. Their family consists of six children, Alma, May, Herbert, Ruth, Min- nie and Fanny, all at home, and they lost one child, Nellie, who died in 1900, at the age of two years.

SAMUEL W. WHITEHEAD. Prominent among the leading agriculturists of Stoddard county is Samuel W. Whitehead, who is pros- perously engaged in his independent voca-

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tion on one of the most highly improved and desirable estates of his community, his farm being advantageously located three miles north of Bernie. This county is fortunate in having heen settled by a remarkably enter- prising, industrious and thrifty class of peo- ple, noteworthy among the number having been Mr. Whitehead's parents, John and Polly ( Henson) Whitehead.

John Whitehead was born and reared in North Carolina, and was there married, his wife having been a native of South Carolina. Sometime in the 'thirties he came to Missouri in search of new and cheap lands. Finding what he needed in Stoddard county, three miles south of Essex, he took up a homestead claim, and on the farm which he cleared and improved spent his remaining days, dying in 1867. The country roundabout was in its primeval wildness when he settled here, with only here and there an opening in which stood the cabin of the pioneer. Deer, wild tur- keys and other game were plentiful, and bears were so troublesome that John White- head had to hire Indians to keep them away from his stock during the daytime, while at night all cattle, hogs and horses were penned. Little do the people of these later generations realize the hardships and the trials endured, the great ambition required, and the physical endurance demanded to secure the homes es- tablished by the original householders for themselves and their descendants.

Brought up on the parental homestead, Sammel W. Whitehead assisted his father as soon as old enough in the care of the farm. and subsequently worked for wages for John Prewitt, a neighboring farmer. In 1876 he made his first purchase of land, paying eleven dollars an acre for a tract of eighty acres, thirty acres of which had been cleared. while a log cabin had been erected, the re- mainder of the land being heavily timbered. Mr. Whitehead had two hundred and fifty dollars in cash to invest, and had inherited from his father's estate forty acres of adjoin- ing land, valued at six hundred dollars, his available assets, therefore, amounting to eight hundred and fifty dollars. Farseeing and enterprising, Mr. Whitehead bought more land from time to time, buying forty acres at ten dollars an acre, paying the small sum of eighty dollars for one traet of forty acres, and three hundred and fifty dollars for an- other tract of the same area. The most that he ever gave for land was ten dollars an aere. He had to give ten per cent interest on money

which he hired to make the payments on his various purchases, and had no trouble in meeting the payments, although he seldom received more than ten cents a bushel for the corn he raised, and one season sold eight hun- dred bushels at eight cents a bushel. His agricultural implements and tools were of the most primitive kind, although he was the proud possessor of a turning plow, and later became owner of a double shovel plow. Mr. Whitehead began growing cotton at an early day, and as that brought him a fair cash price he was easily enabled to make the payments on his place, which is now one of the best in regard to its appointments of any in the lo- cality, his two hundred and thirty acres of land being well improved and highly produc- tive. In the clearing of his land he, in com- mon with the people of this section, burned fine trees that would now be of great value; the fine walnut and cherry timber then burned would now more than pay for the land.

In earlier days Mr. Whitehead devoted from twenty to thirty acres of his land to the culture of cotton, but of late years has from seventy-five to a hundred acres planted to that profitable erop, he doing the planting himself, while his tenants do the hoeing and picking. As a stock raiser he was also ex- ceedingly successful, keeping his cattle and hogs on his extensive range, and through his exceptionally good management of crops and stock he was only about ten years in paying for his large farm.

Mr. Whitehead has been twice married. He married first, at the age of twenty-five years, Elizabeth Lee, of Kentucky. After a happy wedded life of thirty years she passed to the life beyond, leaving three children, namely : Cora, wife of Harry Askin; Thomas; and Artie. Another child, Bobbie, a bright little fellow, died at the age of two years. Mr. Whitehead married on July 26, 1909, Grace Smith, who was born in Dexter, Missouri, her parents being William and Mary (Collins) Smith, who for forty years were residents of Stoddard and Dunklin counties. The father died March 26, 1896, aged about forty-nine years, but the mother still resides, near Mr. Whitehead, aged sixty-seven years. In his political relations Mr. Whitehead is a straightforward Democrat, while Mrs. White- head is a steadfast Republican in her polit- ical views. Mr. Whitehead is familiar with rifle and gun, and as a young man was an ex- pert shot. killing many wild turkeys and deer.

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JAMES A. GLASSEY is the cashier of the People's Bank of Sullivan and was born in St. Louis, Missouri, February 22, 1865. His father is Alexander Glassey, now a stock man and farmer of Cuba, Missouri, the birth of the elder gentleman having occurred in County Armagh, Ireland, in 1831, and his removal to the United States at about the age of eighteen years. En route to the Missis- sippi Valley, where he finally located, Alex- ander Glassey made his way from Castle Gar- den down through Pennsylvania, and reached St. Louis before the outbreak of the Civil war. During a portion of that troublous pe- riod he was in the government service as a laborer, and after its close he engaged in teaming in the city, doing hauling for the first water works constructed there. He also hauled the first passenger coach across the Mississippi river on its own wheels and was engaged in heavy team work for a number of years. In 1876 he left the city and engaged in farming and stock-raising near Cuba, where he has since resided. Alexander Glas- sey married Annie E. Slater, who died at Cuba, Missouri, the mother of five children, of whom James A. was the third in order of birth.

James A. Glassey had access to the public schools of St. Louis and Cuba and to the Normal School at Cape Girardeau, and he took up public school work as a teacher at the age of nineteen years. He taught in Gas- conade county and, following his period in the Normal, he engaged in school work in Franklin county as principal of the schools of Sullivan. After a few years Mr. Glassey abandoned teaching and entered railroad service as clerk in the general passenger de- partment in the 'Frisco office at St. Louis. Ile subsequently accepted a position as pas- senger agent with the Santa Fe road at St. Louis, retaining this for six years, and upon the reorganization of the 'Frisco system he became a ticket agent of the company at Mo- nett, Missouri, and later was transferred to Joplin. After that Mr. Glassey made a rad- ical change of occupation and engaged in the lumber business in the employ of the W. R. Pickering Lumber Company, at Pickering, Louisiana. In 1904, after three years with the company mentioned, he returned to Sul- livan, Missouri, and organized the People's Bank. This substantial monetary institu- tion is capitalized at ten thousand dollars, and its officers are as follows: Dr. Albert

Lane, president; J. L. Lapee, vice-president ; and Mr. Glassey, cashier.

In the movement for the creation of a Tri- County Fair Association Mr. Glassey was among its leading promoters and in October, 1911, its first exhibition of the products of the counties of Franklin, Jefferson and Craw- ford was made at Sullivan. Mr. Glassey is treasurer of the association and has served in a like capacity for the special road dis- trict created near his town. In politics he is a Republican and has taken an active interest in public affairs. He has been a member of the city council for six years and has had something to contribute to the welfare of Sul- livan in the way of service.

On the 23d day of September, 1891, Mr. Glassey married in Sullivan Miss Susan Phil- lips, a daughter of J. B. Phillips, a represen- tative of one of the old families of this section of Missouri. The children of this union are as follows: Roland S., Agnes, Gladys, Paul B., James A., Jr., Arthur Phillips and Zoe Glassey.

Mr. Glassey is an enthusiastic lodge man, his membership extending to the Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen.

HORATIO SEYMOUR RHODES. Among the progressive farmers of Stoddard county, Mis- souri, is R. S. Rhodes, who has occupied his present country home near Advance since the spring of 1909.

Mr. Rhodes is a native of Stoddard county, born March 19, 1869, and belongs to a family which has been identified with this section of the country since way back in the early part of the nineteenth century. Grandfather Rhodes moved to Stoddard county in 1830, coming here from Perry county, this state, where R. S. Rhodes' father was born ; his mother was born in Cape Girardeau county. Mr. Rhodes received his early education in the common schools. He spent fifteen months as a student at the Cape Girardeau Normal School, and for one term he taught school. Farming, however, had more attractions for him than school teaching, and soon he settled down on sixty acres of land given him by his father. Most of this land had to be cleared and buildings had to be erected. After he had it improved and nearly all under cultiva- tion he traded this tract for eighty acres of the farm upon which he was born, to which he has added fifteen aeres, and soon after- ward he bought eighty acres of his present

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home place, to which he has since added until the tract now comprises one hundred and six- ty-five acres. This place he fertilized and im- proved with good buildings, and for several years he rented it, while he lived at Advance, where for a time he was engaged in a mer- cantile business. Then he bought out a lum- ber company. Subsequently he sold an inter- est in this company to his brother, and after being connected with it for three years longer he disposed of his interest, coming out of the enterprise with a good profit for his time and energy expended. Then he settled down to farming again, and on his home farm raises a diversity of erops, including corn, wheat, cotton, oats and clover. And in addition to this farm he has one hundred and twenty acres five miles south of Advance and near Tilman, all of which is valuable property.

On May 23, 1906, Mr. Rhodes and Miss Annie Goza were united in marriage, and their home has been blessed in the birth of two children: Freda, August 20, 1907; and Norma, January 13, 1910.

Fraternally Mr. Rhodes is identified with the M. W. of A. Mrs. Rhodes, with the R. N. of A., and both are members of the Meth- odist Episcopal church, South. Politically Mr. Rhodes affiliates with the Democratic party.

SANFORD CATO. Among the estimable citi- zens and representative agriculturists of Bol- linger county, Missouri, Sanford Cato holds prestige as one whose loyalty and publie spirit in all matters affecting the general welfare of Wayne township have ever been of the most insistent order. He is the owner of a finely improved farm of over five hundred acres, situated some two miles distant from Greenbrier, and he devotes his attention to general farming and the raising of high-grade stock.

Sanford Cato was born in Bollinger county, Missouri, on February 28, 1858, and he is a son of Chap and Louisa ( Rowe) Cato, both of whom were natives of Missouri and both of whom are now deceased. The father was identified with agricultural operations during his active career and he was called to the life eternal in 1864, at which time San- ford of this review was a child of but six years of age. Mrs. Cato survived her hon- ored husband for twenty-two years and she passed to the great beyond in 1886. Sanford Cato passed his boyhood and youth on the old homestead farm, the same representing a por-

tion of his present extensive estate. With the passage of years Mr. Cato has increased his acreage until his well cultivated fields now constitute an area of a little over five hundred acres, all located in Wayne town- ship. He has made an admirable success of farming and stock-raising and his modern residence and well equipped farm buildings in the midst of fertile fields are the best in- dication of his shrewdness and practical abil- ity as an agriculturist. In politics Mr. Cato affords an unswerving allegiance to the prin- ciples and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and while he has never manifested aught of ambition for political preferment of any kind he is ever ready to do all in his power to advance the best inter- ests of the community and county at large. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and his religious faith is in harmony with the tenets of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Mr. Cato has been twice married. His first union was to Mary E. Stepp, a daughter of James and Nancy Stepp, of Missouri, and this ceremony was performed in 1882. Concern- ing the seven children born to this marriage the following brief data are here incorpo- rated,-Flewey Isabelle, whose birth occurred in 1883, is the wife of Pink Collins, of Clark- ton, Missouri; Louis Wesley, born in 1885, wedded Lilly Null, and they reside on the home farm of the father; Adolph Franklin, born in 1887, married Edith Adams, and he resides at home; Cardova, born in 1889, is the wife of Charles Knott, residing on the father's farm; Hobart, born in 1897, re- mains at home, as do also Dolly May, born in 1902, and Louise, born in 1905. Mrs. Cato died in 1906, and subsequently Mr. Cato was united in marriage to Mrs. Rhoda A. Martin, a daughter of L. W. Barrett, of Brownwood. This union has been blessed with three chil- dren, namely: Taft, born November 13, 1908; Sarah, whose birth occurred January 26, 1910; and Elvin, born April 5, 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Cato are prominent and popular factors in connection with the best social ac- tivities of their home community, where they hold a high place in the confidence and es- teem of all with whom they have come in contact.

WILLIAM C. HARTY. A well-known resi- dent of Bloomfield, William C. Harty comes of honored pioneer stock, Stoddard county

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having been especially fortunate in being set- tled by an industrious, thrifty and intelligent class of people, among whom were his grand- parents, Daniel and Fannie ( Bremer) Harty, and his father, Andrew J. Harty. He was born on the parental farm five miles south- west of Bloomfield. July 1, 1844, and was there reared and educated. Daniel Harty came with his family to Stoddard county in 1834, settling first on a tract of nnimproved land lying ten miles west of Bloomfield, but later moving to a farm situated three miles from Bloomfield, where he resided until his death, in 1860.

Born in either Georgia or Alabama, Andrew J. Harty was a young man when he accom- panied the family to Stoddard county. Suc- ceeding to the occupation of his ancestors, he was a tiller of the soil during his entire ac- tive career, and on the farm which he im- proved resided until his death, in 1876. He married, in Stoddard county, Elizabeth Ma- com, who was born in Belleville, Illinois, and died in Stoddard county, Missouri, in 1882. They reared seven children, of whom three were living in 1912, as follows: Frank, en- gaged in farming near Essex, Missouri; Sarah, wife of Thomas Fortner; aud Wil- liam C.

Brought up on the parental homestead. William C. Harty served in the Second Mis- sonri Cavalry during the last two years of the Civil war, under command of Colonel Me- Neill, being stationed principally at Cape Girardeau. He was afterwards engaged in agricultural pursuits near his father's farm until thirty-two years of age. Becoming much interested in local affairs, he subsequently filled various official positions, from 1870 un- til 1875 serving as county tax assessor, from 1876 until 1887, or five terms, being tax col- lector; afterwards serving as county treasurer of Stoddard county for one term. During the ensuing six years Mr. Harty was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Bloomfield, and since that time has carried on a successful livery business, keeping about twelve horses. He is a stanch Republican in politics, and though the county is a Democratic stronghold, he was elected as a delegate to the Judicial and Con- gressional convention by popular vote after an effective button-hole campaign.

Mr. Harty married. January 25, 1863, Susan Moore, and they have four children, namely: Alfred Lafayette, of whom a brief sketch appears also in this volume; Sarah, wife of F. A. Brannock ; Robert L., a painter ;

and William, who is also a painter by trade, and operates the auto livery between Bloom- field and Dexter. Fraternally Mr. Harty is a blue lodge Mason.

ALFRED L. HARTY, A career that has been prolific in results and benignant in its ob- jective influence has been that of this essen- tially representative business man of Stod- dard county, and he is a citizen who has stood sponsor for progressive enterprise along lines that have conserved the general welfare of the community. He is a native son of Stoddard county and a scion of one of the honored pio- neer families of this favored section of the state. He resides in the thriving little city of Bloomfield, the judicial center of the county, and here his interests are varied and impor- tant. He has continued to be concerned with the great basic industry of agriculture, is en- gaged in the real estate business, and is one of the most influential factors in connection with banking enterprise in his native county. It is thus to be seen that he is conducting opera- tions along normal and beneficent channels of industrial and commercial enterprise and that he is contributing much to the material and civic prosperity of his home city and county, the while he has so measured up to the critical metewand of popular approba- tion as to have impregnable vantage ground in the confidence and esteem of a community which has represented his home from the time of his birth. He is a son of William C. Harty, one of the prominent and honored citizens of Stoddard county.

On the old homestead farm of the family, about seven miles southwest of Bloomfield, Stoddard county. Alfred L. Harty was born on the 3d of November, 1869, and thus he is in the very prime of his strong and useful manhood at the present time,-a valned fac- tor in civic and business activities of the com- munity. He is indebted to the public schools of Bloomfield for his early educational disci- pline, which included the curriculum of the high school, and as a young man he here en- gaged in the drug business, with which he continued to be actively identified for a pe- riod of five years. Popular recognition of his eligibility for position of public trust then led to his appointment to the dual office of dep- uty county recorder and deputy county tax- collector which positions he assumed in 1893. His efficiency in the service of the county marked him for more distinct official prefer- ment, and in 1896 he was elected county col-

Momstruly , alfred . Harly

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lector, an office of which he continued the val- ued and popular incumbent for three terms of two years each. In 1902 he engaged in the real estate business and his transactions in this field of enterprise have been of large and important order, while through the same he has done much to foster the progress and sub- stantial upbuilding of his home city and county. Absolute fairness and integrity of purpose have characterized every phase of his business career and his reputation is his best business asset. His success has been sub- stantial and gratifying, and so worthily has it been won that none can begrudge him his advancement as a man of affairs. Not only is he president of the Stoddard County Trust Company, at Bloomfield, one of the solid and representative financial institutions of this part of the state, but he is also engaged in the banking business in the towns of Dexter and Essex, two of the progressive eities of Stod- dard county. As a representative of agricul- tural interests Mr. Harty is the owner of a valuable landed estate of about four thousand acres, in Stoddard and Butler counties, Mis- souri, and the state of Arkansas, and he gives a general supervision to the same, a consider- able portion of the land being devoted to di- versified agriculture and special attention be- ing also given to the raising and feeding of live stock. Mr. Harty is a man of distinctive initiative and executive ability and he is in- defatigable in the promotion of the various en- terprises with which he is concerned. He brings to bear the most progressive policies and methods and thus his success has not been an accident but a logical result. He has been a zealous advocate of public improvements and other measures tending to further the general prosperity of this section of Missouri and he has been specially influential in the carrying forward of effective drainage enterprise. in connection with which he is one of the super- visors of the Little River drainage district. In the city of Dexter he is the President of a thor- oughly modern ice plant, through the medium of which he conducts a large and substantial business as a manufacturer of and dealer in ice. In the same city he also maintains a well equipped laundry, which likewise controls a prosperous business. It will thus be seen that he has marked aggressiveness and versatility in the domain of productive business enter- prise, and there seems to be no limit to his capacity or his energy.

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History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 92

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 802

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802